Warning Signs to Go up After 5th Drowning

New warning signs are going up at some of the Delaware River’s most popular swimming areas after five people drowned in the river this summer.

The Middletown Times Herald-Record reports that the new signage was one of the ideas to emerge after the National Park Service and emergency-management coordinators from five counties met Friday (Aug. 5) at the firehouse in Narrowsburg, N.Y.

Signs will be posted in popular swimming areas like Ten Mile River and Skinners Falls.

Officials say life jackets are the key to river safety. None of this year’s victims wore one. Of 63 Delaware drowning victims since 1980, only three were wearing life jackets, and in those three cases the jackets weren’t properly fastened.